Another Little Miracle

22 March 2020

Introducing to you... Baby Hughes #2!

We are both so very ecstatic to tell you all that our beautiful daughter, *Florence Elizabeth Grace Hughes, has finally graced us with her presence! Little Florrie was born at 2:35pm on 2nd March 2020, weighing a chunky 8lb 15oz. She is every bit as beautiful & perfect as her big sister!

After a suspected miscarriage in May 2019, we were both delighted and nervous when we got our positive pregnancy test in June 2019. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and we were sat in the garden at 8:45am soaking it in - when it suddenly hit me that I had missed my period. Very quietly, I snuck off upstairs and did a pregnancy test. I wanted to give Phil an exciting way of finding out... but I couldn’t contain it! I came down and told him instantlly - we hugged and cried! And as Phil said ‘there’s a baby in there!’, pointing at my belly, Emilia walked into the room and said ’really?!’. Hence how she knew from when we did! Ha!

The days, weeks and months to follow were not so fun and exciting though! At 6 weeks, I had the most horrendous experience... a severe bleed. We were rushed to the Emergency Department for Early Pregnancy at Liverpool Women’s, were we had to sit and wait ‘patiently’ for a scan to see if everything was safe. Thank the Lord, it was! And that is when Florence got the name Jellybean - because Emilia (who came to the scan with us) thought the scan picture looked like a Jellybean. Only 4 weeks later, I had another bleed. But again, all was safe.

To cut a VERY long pregnancy short, I suffered with severe morning sickness from 4 weeks to 22 weeks - the kind that came from nowhere, lasted all day and was like projectile vomiting! It was horrendous. I lost 2 stone before baby had really even started growing. Other than the sickness, weeks 10 to 12 were quiet, until my 1st water infection. Following that, I was treated for 6 future water infections - to which my liver started to react to the antibiotics. I ended up slightly jaundice with the effects, and also contracted gastroenteritis. If that wasn’t enough, I had about 12 visited to the Maternity Assessment Unit in the 3rd trimester.

At 36 weeks pregnant, everything started to get serious. I was having contractions, suffering severely with Pelvic Girdle Pain (which I had had the entire pregnancy but had suddenly gotten much worse!), and began to experience reduced movements - the reason for which was something that was later discovered when Jellybean arrived!

It really was a very rough pregnancy for me this time around, but I am still very aware of how incredibly blessed I am and how amazing my body is to have grown a baby!

Birth

Throughout my pregnancy, I swayed back and forth about the idea of a C-Section - something that was advised by my consultant for a few reasons. By 36 weeks (just as things started to get really difficult), I finally caved and agreed to have the Elective Section.

On the day, I spent the morning getting the house clean and tidy, showered and got sorted. We picked Emilia up from Nursery, dropped her off at my Mum‘s and headed to the hospital. At this point, it still didn’t feel real, as we‘d dropped Emilia at my mum’s a few times when I’d had to go to the hospital in an emergency.

We arrived at the Maternity Base and were shown to the Admissions Lounge by a lovely Midwife called Kathryn. She was going to be the Midwife who ’delivered’ our baby.

After a quick briefing, signing some forms & changing into a gown - off we went to theatre! And yes, I had to walk to theatre, in a gown...

There’s not much more to tell about the actual surgery - other than we found out the reason why she had stopped moving a few days previous... the umbilical cord was so long that it had wrapped around her neck twice! So, Praise God I had opted for the section, otherwise it‘d have been an emergency section because of distress!

The only drama to the section was that the anaesthetic started to wear off whilst I was still on the operating table! I began to be able to wiggle my toes as they were stitching me up! Luckily, I made it through the last few stitches before I needed to be put under! Thank goodness!

The whole experience was incredibly positive - which was a relief from my time with Emilia. My time in hospital was amazing - the staff were some of the nicest people I have ever met. I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better experience all in all.

My only negative was the pain relief - being allergic to Ibuprofen, I wasn’t able to have the 16hr slow-release anti-inflammatory. So I was given IV paracetamol every 6 hours... not the best pain relief then you’ve been chopped open and a chunky baba removed from your uterus! But I survived!

Big Sister Emilia is utterly besotted - very protective, gave her her first feed, cuddles and kisses her endlessly and, her favourite thing to do, baths Florence so gentley and cares for her so much! Big Brother Milo, on the other hand, thinks she’s smelly, noisy and still isn’t too sure - but is still very protective of her!

Anyway, less babbling... here are some photographs of my beautiful little jellybean! (If you wanna see the gory ones, you’ll have to text me! I wont post them on here! Haha!)